Newsletter

Frustration overshadows Truman Parkway dedication

The Harry S. Truman Parkway was dedicated Friday afternoon in a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by dozens of state and local officials as well as curious members of the public who have been waiting decades for the event.

The half-hour-long event was attended by roughly 60 people on a ramp of the Truman Parkway at White Bluff Road intersection. As state officials say the fifth and final phase of the 10.8-mile freeway will not be ready to actually open to traffic perhaps until the second week of March, enthusiasm was at a minimum.

Feelings of confusion and frustration on the part of some local officials about the delay laid hidden underneath the smiles and congratulations officials extended toward one other.

Ann Purcell, a Georgia Department of Transportation board member, assured the ceremony’s audience the freeway section would be opening soon.

On Feb. 21, the Savannah Morning News tweeted about the delay after being informed about it by a GDOT official. A GDOT news release about the delay was sent out three days later the following Monday. But county commissioners said it wasn’t until late Thursday that they learned the movement of traffic on the new freeway section would not immediately follow Friday’s ceremony.

Many of them were furious and at least one commissioner during Friday’s pre-commission meeting threatened not to attend the event. They balked at the thought of a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a project that was yet to be completed.

Commission Chairman Al Scott, who insisted on calling the event a “road dedication” and not a ribbon-cutting ceremony, said it was one of the few times a road opening had not been coordinated between the state and county.

“It’s unacceptable as far as I’m concerned,” said Commissioner Lori Brady, whose district includes the phase five section.

The afternoon scheduling of the ceremony, when Abercorn Extension traffic is at its peak, probably didn’t help ease tensions.

The Truman Parkway project is a state project, which the county contributed SPLOST funds toward. The coordination of the ribbon-cutting was handled by GDOT.

A more upbeat Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson said that when she was traveling to the ceremony she was tempted to continue driving past the festivities on the nearly completed section to see where she would end up. Then, she said, she came to her senses.

“It started with a vision, then it went to a dream and now it is a reality,” Jackson said of the freeway.